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Old 02-20-2017, 04:21 PM   #9
Icelander
 
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default Into the Labyrinth

O'Toole finds some clothes next to the battered, faeces-covered body in the supposedly empty cell and confirms that he's carrying ID issued by the DHS in the name of Vicente Berrocal. Dr. Anderson looks the victim over and proclaims that he'll live, but he needs proper medical attention as soon as possible.*

Agent O'Toole calls everyone together for a conference. Reluctantly, Taylor lets go of Sherilyn's hands with a whispered "Ain't never gonna leave you" and steps away to join the others in a huddle in the center of the corridor. Ms. Bell walks a few steps to the side, opens her cell door and skips merrily over to the huddle, to the considerable astonishment of everyone involved.

Bell [chipper, bouncing up and down]: "What are we doin'?"
Col. Burr [sputtering]: "She... she's out!"
Taylor: "Bigger problems, Colonel. That's a federal agent, he's been kidnapped, beaten, tortured, an' it sure do look like everyone on the guard force is in on it. Including them ones outside our door."
O'Toole: "Wait a minute, we don't know anything about the guilt and innocence of all the guards."
Taylor: "I've got a purdy fair idea. Does anybody see any way for this to happen over a period of two days without all them guards knowing about it?"
[thoughtful looks, headshakes]
Taylor: "Anyway, I ain't talking about guilt or innocence, trials or punishment. Threat estimates. If the guards did this, the guards must expect us to find him and the guards are almost certainly coming here to do something about it. If I'm wrong, great, I'm tickled pink, but if I'm right, we've got a problem. I say we get one of them guards in here and ask him about this."
Col. Burr: "Wait a minute, you're a convict. What are you doing giving orders?"
Taylor: "Not an order, Colonel, jes' a suggestion. We do have to find out what we're facing and we sure don't have all night."
Townsend: "Taylor has a point."
O'Toole: "I'll go with you. Don't hurt anyone. These men are American citizens and they could be just doing their jobs."
Taylor: "Just a polite chat, Agent O'Toole."

O'Toole whispers to Taylor if he can find some way to get Sherilyn Bell into her cell again before bringing in a guard. Ms. Bell shoots him a haughty glare, skips back into her cell, closes the door and gives Taylor a glowing smile. O'Toole and Taylor move to the block doors where the guards are. On the way, Taylor takes off his clip-on tie and palms it carefully in his left hand. They knock at the door and the guards open.

Guard Ball remained behind downstairs and Guard Hewitt has gone somewhere, which leaves two guards outside the door. O'Toole barks at one of them to go fetch the Deputy Warden and Special Agent Banks. No matter how busy or in a meeting they claim to be; they have to come there now. Taylor tells the other in a commanding voice that he is needed inside, now. Placing his hand on the guard's right arm, Taylor guides him inside.

When the guard does not physically resist this, Taylor is utterly certain that this guard is planning to harm them. No correctional officer, which these guys are for all that they call this an asylum, is going to let someone trap his arm and prevent him from accessing his tool belt that way. He doesn't react because he already knows that the rest of the guards are coming for us and he's hoping to delay violence until his buddies show up.

Taylor marches the guard to the cell door where Vicente Berrocal was kept. Dr. Anderson and Townsend hadn't removed him from there yet and they closed the door while O'Toole and Taylor fetched the guard. Taylor orders the guard, Reyes, to open the door. Reyes demurs that it's locked; Taylor points out that the key is probably on that thick keychain on his belt. Reyes refuses firmly to open the door, so Taylor janks the unlocked door open, revealing Berrocal on the floor.

Taylor: "Did you and your buddies do this? Huh? Like to hurt people, Reyes?"

Reyes tries to push Taylor away from him with the right elbow and reach either the Mace or the baton on his tool belt. Taylor grasps the clip-on tie he's holding with both hands and wraps it around Reyes' right arm. One complicated motion later, Reyes is half inside the cell in an arm lock, with Taylor standing behind him (taking care not to extend the joint far enough to actually hurt).

Taylor: "Ain't gonna hurt you, Reyes. Just talk and this ends. Who ordered it and who knows?"

Apparently, Reyes wasn't a man of violence or maybe Taylor seemed really scary, because Reyes starts weeping and confessing. Agent Vicente Berrocal was there to take Inmate Bell away and Deputy Warden Tyrrell took exception to that. He ordered the guards to take Berrocal into custody and faked his signature in the visitor's log to show him having departed. Most of the damage was done by Warden Tyrrell himself, but Reyes doesn't deny that the entire guard force was fully aware that a federal agent had been kidnapped by their boss and kept in a cell.

Taylor locks Reyes in the other cell, the one that really was empty and tells him that he'll probably be picked up shortly. In the meantime, the other characters are discussing a way out. Taylor asks Sherilyn if there's another way out of J Wing that doesn't involve running into the guards if they come there.

Bell: "We could go down in the dark. Guards don't go there, no they don't, because they're oh-so-afraid. Of course, we could meet the Monster down there. That's where it lives."
Dr. Anderson: "She means the tunnels under the asylum complex. They link the entire compound."
Taylor: "Great. Sherilyn, couldya please show us the shortest way to reach the tunnels without meeting any guards."
Townsend: "Monster?"
Taylor: "Bigger problems. Less'n you're fixin' to stay here and explain things to the Warden."

Bell glides out of her cell, smiles brightly at Townsend and asks to see his papers. Without reading them, she grabs a pen from his pocket and signs with a flourish. Technically, mission accomplished. Survival would help, though.

To make it easier for Dr. Anderson and Townsend to move Berrocal, Taylor tosses them his jacket to wrap around the filth. Taylor also gives Reyes' tool belt, including Mace, to O'Toole and the baton to Col. Burr, after asking Burr whether he was ever an infantry officer. Burr claims to have been one and seems quite happy with the baton in his hand.

Before leaving, Taylor wraps his shirt around Sherilyn's hospital garb and puts his 'Bama cap on her head. The remains of Taylor's G-Man suit are now dress pants, laceless shoes and a white sleeveless undershirt revealing a 7th SFG(A) tattoo on the right arm and a black hellhound on the left bicep. Taylor whispers something to Bell for several seconds, seemingly asking her to agree to something. She clearly assents, but then adds: "Don't be such a fuddy-duddy. I can take care of myself."

Taylor: "Bullets don't care if you're clever or courageous, Lynnie."
Bell: "You used to be a lot more fun."
Taylor: "We used to be kids, Lynnie."

As everyone runs down the stairs to reach the basement level, Taylor can clearly hear running boots as guards pass the desk where Ball sat. O'Toole only just manages to get the door to the tunnels open before the guards come down the last stairs after them. As they enter the darkness, Taylor can hear the guards shouting.

Guard 1: "They went into the tunnels."
Guard 2: "No way am I going in there!"
Guard leader: "We don't have to. He'll take care of them."

*Dr. Anderson also secretly used his powers to ensure that the terrified and tormented Berrocal fell into a deep sleep.
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Last edited by Icelander; 01-25-2018 at 04:54 AM.
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